The Laugh Out Loud Book Awards – known as the Lollies – are a celebration of the funniest books for children and the winners are voted for by children themselves!
The award was set up by Scholastic UK in 2016, after the withdrawal of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize and is supported by BookTrust and Michael Rosen – who instigated the formation of the Funny Prize during his term as Children’s Laureate. The intention with both awards was and is to focus attention on funny books, which are invaluable for creating readers, but which are often overlooked in other awards.
Publishers submit their funniest children’s books of the previous year to be nominated for the award and a panel of judges is chosen to help whittle down this long list of Lollies entries to create a shortlists traditionally in 3 categories Best Laugh Out Loud Picture Book, Best Laugh Out Loud Book for six to eight-year-olds and Best Laugh Out Loud Book for nine to 12-year-olds. This year, the awards have been expanded to include four new categories: Teens, Poetry Book, Non-fiction and Illustrator of the Year.
The website https://shop.scholastic.co.uk/lollies provides teaching resources including fun activities for the summer holidays and how to vote, as well as class decoration packs!
WINNERS OF THE 2023 LOLLIES ANNOUNCED
While the judges selected the shortlist, the winners of the awards were decided entirely by children’s votes. This year, over 11,000 votes were cast.
| Best Laugh Out Loud Picture Book: Wee? It Wasn’t Me by Clare Helen Welsh and illustrated by Nicola O’Byrne (Macmillan ) ISBN: 978-1529030495 Lenny the lemur is on holiday in Alaska. He’s skipping across the snow, when he slips in a puddle. It’s wet, yellow and smelly… WEE! But whose wee could it be? Lenny is on a quest to find out… Along the way, he meets various animals and learns all about their weeing habits! But the real question is: will he find that pesky puddle-piddler? Brilliantly illustrated, very funny and genuinely informative |  |
| Best Laugh Out Loud Book for 6-8-year-olds A Monster Ate My Packed Lunch! written by Pamela Butchart and illustrated by Thomas Flintham (Nosy Crow) ISBN: 978-1788009690 Another in the highly successful series which has good jokes and lots of fun, and is especially good for reluctant readers. Izzy and her friends are on a school trip to a big lake. Gary Petrie is excited because the lodges where they’re staying have ROBES AND SLIPPERS! The lake is dark and deep and a bit scary. But it’s when they open their packed lunches that they know! There’s a MONSTER in the lake and it’s coming for their CRISPS! |  |
| Best Laugh Out Loud Book for 9-13-year-olds The Boy Who Made Everyone Laugh by Helen Rutter. (Scholastic) ISBN: 978-0702300851 A brilliant against-all-odds triumph of a story featuring 11 year old Billy Plimpton who is about to start at secondary school and wants to be a stand-up comedian when he grows up A tough career for anyone, but surely impossible for Billy, who has a stammer? Relatable, empowering and genuinely hilarious jokes. |  |
| Best Laugh Out Loud Book for Teens Not My Problem by Ciara Smyth(Andersen Press) ISBN: 978-1839130854 Fizzing with witty one-liners and blessed with some truly memorable teen characters, Smyth’s delightful second novel sees school ‘fixer’ Aideen battling her own demons( Her mother drinking again, skipping school, a BFF who is not speaking to her etc) whilst trying to sort out her classmates’ problems. |  |
| Best Laugh Out Loud Poetry Book Yapping Away by Joshua Seigal, illustrated by Sarah Horne, (Bloomsbury Education)ISBN: 978-1472972743 An anthology with everything from hilarious to heartfelt poems. Discover the eight steps for having a successful tantrum, and why you should NEVER attend a Teddy Bear’s Picnic (you have been warned). Also full of fun illustrations by Sarah Horne.
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| Best Laugh Out Loud Non-fiction Book. Unleash Your Creative Monster: A Children’s Guide to Writing by Andy Jones, illustrated by Olaf Falafel. (Walker Books) ISBN: 978-1406396621 A truly imaginative writing guide. Children learn about structure, plot and description with inventive prompts and challenges, all brought to life by Olaf Falafel’s funny and inventive illustrations. |  |
| Lollies Illustrator of the Year: Dapo Adeola Dapo Adeola is an award-winning illustrator and designer who creates characters and images that challenge expectations around race and gender in a fun and upbeat way. He is the co-creator and illustrator of bestselling picture book Look Up! – winner of the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and the number 1 debut picture book of 2019. |  |
